2020 : Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[Deleted member 18083]

Resting place …

Tallegalla Cemetery​

Today was windy and I an eye constantly on my Trek's range prediction. It's disconcerting to arrive at the halfway point with the 'range' decidedly less than the distance home!

Of course, there was no need to worry after leaving my hilltop break at the Tallegalla Cemetery: downhill with a 40 km/h tailwind gusting to over 60 km/h. Easy, even when back on the plains. Actually, the return saw the Powerfly fly without power. Good fun.

The cloud in the photo was running in the same direction as the range of hills which was at right angles to the wind direction so, I expect, its formation was somehow connected. Long ago, when I was flying light aircraft and, on a few occasions, sailplanes I would have known the answer and been able to rattle off terms like 'adiabatic lapse rate' and 'orographic clouds'. (I still can, but I'm not sure that I'd know what I was talking about!) Suffice it to say that the clouds were 'standing still' despite the wind up there blowing at 50–100 km/h.

The hills in the distance are about 50 km away and are part of the D'Aguilar Range. Click to link to a ride there.

 

[Twin Valley]

Looks like a classic example of the broken windows theory...

Broken windows theory - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

certainly not a window has survived but I noticed a variety of birds appreciate their new nesting digs

 

[RabH]

It was a little nicer today, still some mist around but no sign of yesterdays fog! Yet another enjoyable ride on quiet back roads with lots of ups and downs, lots of gravel on the roads so care has to be taken! Still no word of a return to work so the cycling continues for now!

 

[Latitude]

I have been riding 30 to 40 kilometres daily through our nearby Pinery Provincial Park in Southern Ontario, Canada... shore of Lake Huron. There is a paved trail 8 km long to get to the park entrance, and a combination of paved roads, mostly smooth gravel paths and some woodland single track trails. All lovely, some bordering along the beach.

 

[PDXzap]

We rented an rv and headed east to roam around Yellowstone. A snafu at the rental outfit resulted in a unplanned, three hour long delay which in turn led to too little time to work out loading the ebikes to the Kuat rack... and the rack to the rv...

We still had a great time with fantastic weather. Smoke from wild fires that were burning close to home resulted in some spectacular mornings and evenings.

 

[PDXzap]

...All lovely, some bordering along the beach.

That shot with the waves shouts "Trek ad"! Nice!

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Road Ahead …

Fernvale, Queensland​

I wasn't tempted to leave the rail trail. Perhaps, in a few weeks, I will turn left or right (to make my escape!): it'll be 'magpie season' by then and I know that there are already a few pesky magpies just beyond the road crossing who are waiting for the 'open season' on cyclists to begin on the first day in September.

 

[Mulezen]

Get some eye decals for the rear of your helmet. Might not help but it will freak out drivers. I saw recently where farmers afraid of predation are painting eyes on the buttocks of their cows. They say it helps.
I had a wildlife encounter yesterday morning. Quiet country lane and I spy ahead a small deer not quite a fawn. So as I rolled warily towards it I talked to it. It ran from the woods across my path about 40 feet ahead. Now it was in a green field and it seemed to wait for Me then ran parallel matching my speed as I sped up. After maybe a hundred yards it crossed the road into the woods.

 

[Twin Valley]

Road Ahead …
Upload Error : Photo later.

Fernvale, Queensland​

I wasn't tempted to leave the rail trail. Perhaps, in a few weeks, I will turn left or right (to make my escape!): it'll be 'magpie season' by then and I know that there are already a few pesky magpies just beyond the road crossing who are waiting for the 'open season' on cyclists to begin on the first day in September.

magpies? David - I have been waiting for one of your posts to share some Australian hair raising details of something different ie. kangaroos, creepy-crawlies of various sizes, mind you magpies are the most annoying and persistent at building nests on our property - biking I have had a couple of run-ins with nasty hawks who I suppose are protecting nearby nests, certainly another reason to tighten the bike helmet down, when riding in the mountains bear spray takes the place of my water bottle on the bike, luckily have not had any need to unleash this . . .

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Driving soon with our e-bikes to West Pomerania, which is the Poland's wilderness.

Notice forests and lakes. Brix' grandma lives in Tuczno, one of the smallest Polish towns with the population of 1938. I was told I should be more afraid of the game than of any sands, as the latter do not exist in West Pomerania

 

[Deleted member 18083]

New Zealand Woolly Jumpers …

I have been waiting for one of your posts to share some Australian hair raising details of something different.

TV, while you wait, here are the scariest creatures you're likely to meet on a New Zealand rail trail.

These two were hurtling along just in front of me near the end of a 151 km two-day cycle trip along the Otago Central Rail Trail.

 

[Latitude]

Resting place …
View attachment 62875

Tallegalla Cemetery​

Today was windy and I an eye constantly on my Trek's range prediction. It's disconcerting to arrive at the halfway point with the 'range' decidedly less than the distance home!

Of course, there was no need to worry after leaving my hilltop break at the Tallegalla Cemetery: downhill with a 40 km/h tailwind gusting to over 60 km/h. Easy, even when back on the plains. Actually, the return saw the Powerfly fly without power. Good fun.

The cloud in the photo was running in the same direction as the range of hills which was at right angles to the wind direction so, I expect, its formation was somehow connected. Long ago, when I was flying light aircraft and, on a few occasions, sailplanes I would have known the answer and been able to rattle off terms like 'adiabatic lapse rate' and 'orographic clouds'. (I still can, but I'm not sure that I'd know what I was talking about!) Suffice it to say that the clouds were 'standing still' despite the wind up there blowing at 50–100 km/h.

The hills in the distance are about 50 km away and are part of the D'Aguilar Range. Click to link to a ride there.

Your photographs and descriptions are really great!

 

[McCorby]

Milwaukee Lakefront. Such a beautiful day. The Calatrava in the background

 

[Cowlitz]

It was a cloudy and smoky morning here in the Okanogan. A bit of ash was falling from the Palmer Mountain Fire to the north. I was feelin' frisky so loaded up water and two snack bars in the Snuffy Bag and headed up the hill, in Turbo because the first 1/4 mile of the route I was going on is on a (supposed to be) 25mph busy road where people tend to go much faster and there are no, nyet , neinen shoulders or even a hint of a shoulder. It is best to hit that fast and get to the turnoff. Which I did.

My goal was to explore a road that I'd only been partway up. It has little car traffic and gains elevation so you go from sagebrush to forest. I was in a hurry to get up to the unknown part so did not stop for pictures of a Bambi in an alfalfa field or the girl riding a horse sharing her saddle with....a baby goat.

I finally hit the part that I'd never been on and soon it turned to gravel and I had to go slow on the washboard. I was Happy to not be going up Happy Hill. In fact, at that point the unhappy road became much better because I guess the majority of folks are Happy and turn up Happy Hill. What with the climb, Happy Hill might not be very happy for people on bicycles.

This is a shot of Salmon Creek which I followed most of the way up. I would leave it after a few miles. That's smoke in the background.

Next stop, Ruby. The sign says it all. Somewhere around and I think up on the hill is The China Wall which is a rock wall that was being built for some kind of mining purpose. It was never finished and is another historical site.
Here's the explanation of Ruby.

I was thirsty and in downtown Ruby so I had some water as there were no ghosts handing out whisky for a dollar a quart. My bike is shown parked downtown.

Just a bit up the road from Ruby, the road crosses Salmon Creek for the last time and takes a turn. It's still a gentle slope, but not as cool. When you look up and see where these behemoths fell from, you start thinking that this place might not be a good place to be if there was an earthquake. The rocks are huge and where they came from is almost straight up. It looks like part of the hillside just sheared off.

In retrospect, I wish I would have returned the same way. Instead, I continued on and made the ride a loop of 32 miles. The Salmon Creek road ends where it meets the Conconully highway. It's about 3 miles up from there if you want to visit Conconully, which is also an old mining town that survived enough to become a tourist place. I turned the other way and went back to Omak. Luckily, traffic was very light and drivers were alert and polite.
Here is the last picture from the Salmon Creek Road. At this point, power boxes could be seen and I knew I was close to the Conconully road.

The Gazelle performed well and I had plenty of battery left when I got home. I'm thinking the bike could have gone at least 20 more miles, but my butt could not.

So, I have ridden the Salmon Creek Road and will do it again because it is quite pleasant.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

First Day in West Pomerania (or, Lost in the Wilderness at Night)

It took us six and half hours to get from Central Mazovia to the heart of West Pomerania, that is, in the vicinity of the Drawno National Park. West Pomerania is the former German province of Westpommern, with the capital city of Szczecin (Stettin) and is the westernmost of Polish voivodships. It also sports a long Baltic Sea shoreline with exclusively sandy beaches.

Our reason to start our vacation just there was the fact Tuczno (German: Tütz) had been Brix' hometown. We're staying at an excellent agrotourism farm in Nowa Studnica, in the countryside of huge forests and lakes.

At 4 pm. on Thursday , we had our e-bikes ready. We headed for Tuczno to visit Brix' grandma. After couple of kilometres of "washboard" gravel, we got the choice to either ride asphalt or dirt. It turned out Vado hated dirt roads and we arrived in Tuczno by asphalt roads after a 19 km ride...

Brix riding the Vado in her home area.

However small Tuczno is, it is a town. We had a dinner at a local restaurant, starting with local dark ale.

The food unique to Poland: The "Hungarian pancake", or a potato pancake filled or topped with goulash. The Hungarian have never heard of such a meal! It is Polish one

The drama: the dinner and the family reunion took us a lot of time and we had to return to the hotel at night. We were riding very very fast. So fast we lost our way. We were told later by our host many people tended to make the same mistake. We, however, had 1600 lm headlights on our bikes, and Brix had never lost cold blood. We successfully found our way back and were at the hotel at 10:04 pm!

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Wattles are almost finished blooming …

Coominya, Queensland​

I have a conspiracy theory that when the wattles stop flowering the magpies assume that open season on cyclists has begun. I've shared this wisdom with other trail users; the walkers assure me that all one has to do to stave off attacks is to feed the wretches. A lunch tray on the pannier rack?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

A morning quickie through the forest to see the Tuczno Castle. I hate sand! Returning by road to the hotel now. Need some breakfast

 

[Deleted member 18083]

Ready to charge?

Fairney View, Queensland​

I've watched sufficient wildlife documentaries shot on the Serengeti plains to know what happens next. I kept my Trek Powerfly between me and them and made sure that the motor was set to Turbo.

 

[Chargeride]

First Day in West Pomerania (or, Lost in the Wilderness at Night)

It took us six and half hours to get from Central Mazovia to the heart of West Pomerania, that is, in the vicinity of the Drawno National Park. West Pomerania is the former German province of Westpommern, with the capital city of Szczecin (Stettin) and is the westernmost of Polish voivodships. It also sports a long Baltic Sea shoreline with exclusively sandy beaches.

Our reason to start our vacation just there was the fact Tuczno (German: Tütz) had been Brix' hometown. We're staying at an excellent agrotourism farm in Nowa Studnica, in the countryside of huge forests and lakes.

At 4 pm. on Thursday , we had our e-bikes ready. We headed for Tuczno to visit Brix' grandma. After couple of kilometres of "washboard" gravel, we got the choice to either ride asphalt or dirt. It turned out Vado hated dirt roads and we arrived in Tuczno by asphalt roads after a 19 km ride...

View attachment 63023
Brix riding the Vado in her home area.

View attachment 63025
However small Tuczno is, it is a town. We had a dinner at a local restaurant, starting with local dark ale.

View attachment 63027
The food unique to Poland: The "Hungarian pancake", or a potato pancake filled or topped with goulash. The Hungarian have never heard of such a meal! It is Polish one

The drama: the dinner and the family reunion took us a lot of time and we had to return to the hotel at night. We were riding very very fast. So fast we lost our way. We were told later by our host many people tended to make the same mistake. We, however, had 1600 lm headlights on our bikes, and Brix had never lost cold blood. We successfully found our way back and were at the hotel at 10:04 pm!

View attachment 63060

View attachment 63061

Those town names are so Polish.

 

[Mulezen]

David...those lop-eared Brahma (I think) do great in the heat. Always wary when bulls are involved.
Many years ago my brother on a Honda motorcycle stopped at a crest on a remote place on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The brush stirred and out came, one at a time, three little cubs (Black bear). Brother started taking photos and then through the lens came mama not too happy. He shoved off while taking a few more pictures of the bear charging. He missed his first try at ignition but was running with the bike downhill...then he got it started.
At the campground that night he described the incident to a park ranger who politely dismissed his claim. After he had the photos developed he mailed them to the park. The next year when he returned they had posted the pictures at the nature center explaining the mama had probably adopted the third cub.